CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE NEEDS FOR LOW—IMPACT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING

The inspirations for this volume of ALAM CIPTA relate closely to the pressing needs to design our environment for sustainable living. Our earth is fast becoming urban. While progress and development are most welcome, the dominant forces of urbanisation inevitably link with economic activities, their surrounding hinterland and over vast expenses of our social and physical environment. Negative urbanisation impacts and the quest for sustainable development have motivated professionals and academics to revise our conventional approaches and search for new innovative solutions at par with current technology. For the first time, we proudly announced that this volume includes twelve quality works from our local and international peers, creating diversity of examples from different contexts. Some of the papers selected for this volume were derived from Sustainable Tropical Environmental Design Conference 2011 (SusTED 11), which focused on the underlying needs for sustainable and quality living amidst the complications of changes in global climate and irreversible urbanization.